BofA Merrill Lynch Restructures Personal Retirement Team

In an internal memo, David Tyrie, head of PRS, announced that the unit has been reorganized into five areas of focus to be led by members of the newly named PRS leadership team, “as part of our ongoing efforts to organize our business and capabilities around client needs and better align with our 2011 strategic growth plans” (see “BofA Merrill Lynch Hires Head of Personal Retirement Services“).

Surya Kolluri will lead Retirement Channel Management. That team will “ensure our products are effectively marketed and delivered to clients through key partners across GWIM and the broader enterprise,” according to Tyrie.

Kolluri will also lead the Workplace Wealth team, responsible for the development and execution of initiatives and strategies designed to deliver products and services to employees at every level of an organization that does business with BofA Merrill Lynch.

The Retirement Product Management team will be lead by Chuck Toth. This group is responsible for leading the development and ongoing management of retirement planning and college savings products and capabilities, including IRAs, rollovers, wealth transfer, 529 plans, and retirement income solutions.

Doug Comer will head Participant Education and Communication, which is responsible for all facets of participant communication including campaigns, platform analytics, educational programs and collateral and also works to connecting plan participants with financial solutions available in other parts of the organization.

Later in January, Evelyn Varner will be joining BofA Merrill Lynch to lead a new Personal Retirement Solutions function called Interactive Platform Management, leading the company’s online client experience, working closely with our Institutional Retirement Business on both plan participant and plan sponsor websites and tools, including the management of and content development for the Benefits Online platform for 401(k) plans.   Varner’s group will also serve as the research and development arm of PRS, developing business cases for new products and enhancements.

Varner joins the company from Monster Worldwide where she was responsible for marketing strategy and programs, as well as developing the company’s global marketing roadmap. Previously, she was vice president of marketing strategy and innovation at Fidelity Investments.